The Wizard's Misery The Chronicles of the Midlands Book One

Chapter Eighteen

Merton was still mourning the loss of his power as well as his home and sat gloomily silent in the middle of the boat. Celine kept looking his way, compassion written all over her face, as she thought about everything that had happened. "Now we know that the Wizard's Misery still works, but this wasn't supposed to happen. It was our fault that he got angry and knocked the fire pot off the table and burned down his house," she thought with remorse.

After a while they reached the ferry dock and Brandon tied the boat to one of the moorings. He held the boat steady as Merton climbed out, followed by Celine and as he hopped out of the boat, Merton waved at them and then started heading down the road towards Central City with his head bowed down. Brandon and Celine stood there for a moment and watched as he walked away. "It was our fault that his house burned down," Celine said slowly.

"Well, it wasn't that we planned it. It was an accident," Brandon said frowning. "It was just one of things that you don't expect to happen," Brandon told her.

"Yes, but now he's lost everything. He's lost his livelihood and his home and it was kind of our fault," she said sadly.

"I'm sorry that you feel that way but he's an evil wizard and an ally of Maledictor so we had to take his power away. Then you have to remember that he was the one who knocked down that fire pot," Brandon said resolutely. "Yes, he reacted badly to what we'd done. But, he chose to react that way when he didn't have to. He could've just kicked us out of his house and left it at that."

"Still..." she said unhappily.

Brandon shrugged his shoulders and they remained silent for a minute. "Are you hungry? We can go over there and sit on that bench and eat if you like," he asked her, changing the subject as he motioned towards the empty bench that was on the ferry dock for waiting passengers.

"Okay," she answered and they headed over to the bench and sat down. They both took off their packs and Brandon opened his and took out the bag that Bob had packed for them. He took out a sandwich and handed it to Celine and then he took one out for himself. They sat there eating in silence for a little while as they were both hungry not having eaten all day.

Celine took a sip of the water skin and looked down the road which led to Halfaway. It was about mid afternoon and it was too far to walk to Halfaway before dark. "I guess we'll have to stop sometime this evening before heading home to Halfaway," she said.

"Yeah, but I'll have you home by evening tomorrow," he said giving her a smile.

She wanted to suggest that they walk through the night but she figured that he was probably tired from having rowed the boat almost half way across Glimmer Glass Lake so she decided against it. "I'll be glad to have a bath and then sleep in my own bed," she told him instead. "Sleeping on the hard ground is no fun."

"True but at least we can have a fire tonight," he said smiling as he finished his sandwich and reached into the bag for another one. He offered it to Celine but she declined it with a shake of her head so he began to eat it instead.

When they were finished eating, Brandon reached over and picked up the paper wrappings from their sandwiches and folded them and put them back into the bag. "For the fire," he told her as he put the bag into his pack. "Are you ready to go?" he asked. Celine nodded her head and put on her pack as Brandon did the same.

"Well, I'm glad that the Wizard's Misery works," she said as they started walking down the road.

"Yeah, now I'll be able to take it to Sovereign City and use it on Maledictor," he said with an expectant look on his face.

"Don't you think you should test it to see how far away you need to be in order to use it?" she suggested. "The farther from Maledictor you are the better."